I’ve got some excellent news slop for the news mega. I know you’re all going to absolutely love this one:

A lawyer who has been appointed by the British government to represent the Skripals appeared in court where he acknowledged that despite representing the Skripals, he has not been appointed by them, he has not met them, and in fact has had no communication with them at all.

Furthermore the British government argues that not only should the Skripals not be called or even allowed to give evidence, furthermore the witness / victim testimony of the Skripals should not be made available to the courts either, except subject to redaction by the British government.

In fact, the Skripal transcripts will be so redacted, the officials and lawyers admitted in court, it is uncertain what the Skripals believe had happened to them, and why [acknowledged government counsel]

As for evidence that novichok was used on the Skripals at all:

The British have presented no evidence of Novichok on the Skripal home door handle; in the blood, skin, and urine testing of the Skripals in hospital; or in subsequent inquest and court proceedings.

The alleged Russian attack weapon – a perfume bottle atomiser – did not materialize for months until July 2018, when police claim to have found it on a kitchen bench in the home of another alleged victim, Dawn Sturgess, ten days – repeat ten days — after exhaustive police searches of the house had failed to find it.

Oops the only actual evidence of novichok was just sitting there on the kitchen table of an unrelated person this whole time. Case fucking closed with that chain of custody.

In addition to not being allowed to give testimony or to have any contact at all with their own legal representatives, it’s now not even clear if the Skripals are alive.

Sergei Skripal has not been seen in public since the day of the alleged Novichok attack, March 4, 2018. He has not been heard on the telephone by family members in Russia since June 26, 2019. Yulia Skripal was last seen in a government-directed interview at a US bomber base in England in May 2018; her last telephone call to Russia was heard on November 20, 2020. The Skripals have not been seen or heard from since.

The claim that this is due to witness protection doesn’t make any sense since that apparently wasn’t a concern and they were permitted to contact their family and even give interviews (under government supervision on US military bases) until 4 years ago, but now not even a judge can access even the most indirect proof of life, let alone discover their account of events.

Assuming they are still alive (and if so, likely being held in some US military facility since that was their last known status), it appears the British government has used their vast national security powers to impose a secretive gag order:

The judge then asked Holborn to speak for the Skripals. “A line does have to be drawn somewhere,” he began. Then he drew the line the British government is insisting on – nothing from the Skripals since the police interviews of six years ago, and nothing in the transcripts which the government doesn’t want to be known publicly. In short, a gag.

The British government absolutely does not want the Skripals to talk, not even via a lawyer indirectly or even through the vehicle of their police testimony, not even to a court.

The British government absolutely refuses to provide any evidence that novichok was used on the Skripals.

The judge then asked the Home Office lawyer Cathryn McGahey KC to respond. She confirmed there is a gag on the Skripals,

She then told the judge not to call the Skripals to testify either in writing or in open hearing. “Even if they were to be called,” McGahey said, “different considerations may very well apply to different topics, and the topic of preventability [read MI6] is one which will almost certainly be fraught with difficulty, unless there were very strict control over the questions. And most of the material is likely to be closed anyway.”

No questions are to be allowed for the Skripals; no answers from them, either.

Hughes has refused to say in open court that he has verified the Skripals are alive and free to instruct lawyers to represent them.

Very very odd for a lawyer to have zero contact at all with the people he “represents”.

Holborn also refuses to confirm that his clients are alive.

Ominous as fuck for the government to refuse to to even claim they are alive.

https://johnhelmer.net/british-government-invents-phantom-skripals-to-refuse-to-testify-in-the-novichok-inquiry/